


Sacrifices

by Wallwalker



Category: Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
Genre: Angst, Community: temps_mort, Gen, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-01
Updated: 2009-12-01
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:02:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallwalker/pseuds/Wallwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She'd watched him lose everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sacrifices

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for [Temps Mort](http://community.livejournal.com/temps_mort) on Livejournal.

I watched him lose it all.

I watched a strong man, a man whose faith in his country was once absolute, fall from grace and become a pariah. A man who tried to hide his indecision and his doubt, who let his emotional wounds fester and rot and cause him constant, blinding pain. Blinding indeed, to close his eyes to what he must have known would be his doom not once, but twice....

Love can blind a mortal. A man whose heart yearns for love, for acceptance, does not see the truth. He builds those whom he loves into gods, worships his home and family, and then suffers for his delusions when they fall short of his ideals. He makes mistakes that cost him everything.

It was his love for his father and mother, a love which he held in his heart even higher than his love for his country, which became his downfall. It became his religion and his creed, to prove himself to them. I do not believe he would have become a Knight if he had chosen to live his life for himself, rather than to glorify their memories. He would have been a quiet man, a craftsman or an artist. He would have lived and died a peaceful man, never attracting my attention, for I must seek only those with the spirit to fight.

Even now, his heart is full of bitterness and pain, and also love - love for his family, and a deep shame and self-loathing for failing them. It is saddening to me - he loved them so deeply that he sacrificed himself, and even now he blames himself for their suffering. I am not blinded by such human emotions; it is clear to me that he followed this path because he believed that it was what his father required of him, and because he feared the loss of his approval. He continues to torment himself even after his father has met his end.

I cannot understand it... nor can I understand the sympathy that I feel for this man. I should despise such actions, the sacrifice of one's self for the approval of others; one does not toss away one's life so casually on the whims of another, even one's parents. Yet... it feels oddly resonant to me. Perhaps that is why I came to him, against my better judgment.

There is no room in Valhalla for men who are not their own. I must show him that the ones whom he has owed allegiance to for so many years do not deserve his worship. Only then will he be worthy to take his place among the gods.


End file.
